Colorectal cancer, liver mets and peri aortic lymph node spread

Hi MNB,

My bowel cancer spread to my para-aortic lymph nodes (they are between your spine and the back of the stomach at about kidney level, in case you didn’t know) and the spread has continued to the ‘deep’ lymph nodes in my chest cavity. On the plus side the progression has been relatively slow and it doesn’t cause me any pain, although fatigue is a big issue. It missed my liver but is in my spine (at the C7 vertebrae.) I am not on any active treatment other than 6 weekly injections to help maintain bone density. You can draw your own conclusion as to what that means - sorry. But my bowel cancer is a rare type and known to be ‘resistant’ to chemotherapy and as every case is different the best thing to do is speak to your husband’s care team.

I did read about a surgical procedure aimed at removing cancerous ‘deep’ lymph nodes but not sure it is approved in the UK. The article I read was in a US medical journal.

As I say the best source of information about what it means is your husband’s care team.

Wishing you both all the very best.

Maninbath (Tom)

PS I would be happy to share my experiences with your husband.

PPS Bowel Cancer UK have peer support volunteers with lived experience of bowel cancer he could chat to - I’m one.

Thank you for the reply. Much appreciated. 
We wish you well. 

Hi MNB 

Has your husband started treatment yet ? My mum got a good response to her lymph node spread . Big higher up at the mediastinal area . But became too frail for more treatment due to her age but she did get to 15 years as a stage four patient . It really does depend how responsive to treatment he is .

Take care ,

court